Tormasov, Aleksandr

Born in 1752; died Nov. 13 (25), 1819, in Moscow. Russian military commander; cavalry general (1801). Count (1816).

Tormasov began his military career in 1772. He took part in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–91 and in the suppression of the Polish Uprising of 1794. From 1803 to 1808 he served as governor-general of Kiev and Riga. From 1808 to 1811, Tormasov was commander in chief in Georgia and the Caucasus, and he commanded troops in battle during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–12 and in the Russo-Persian War of 1804–13. In 1811 he became a member of the Council of State.

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Tormasov commanded the Third Army, which defeated units of the Saxon Corps of General J. Régnier near Kobrin on July 15 (27). On July 31 (August 12) near Gorodechna, the Third Army repulsed an attack mounted by the superior forces of Régnier and K. Schwarzenberg, whose advance toward Kiev was thus blocked. In September 1812, after the Third Army was combined with the Danube Army of General Chichagov, Tormasov was recalled to the staff of the Russian army field forces, where he directed troop administration and organization. During the illness of General M. I. Kutuzov in the spring of 1813, Tormasov was acting commander in chief. In 1814 he became commander in chief in Moscow, and he did much to restore the city, which had been badly burnt during the war.